My first (but not last) blog.

This is my first ever blog because at last I have caught up the technology.

From now on I will be writing regular updates of what I have been up to and other things that may be of interest. If you are interested, and would like to pray for me in an informed way then please watch this space.

What's been happening?

Back in March I travelled to the United States visiting Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Alabama to pursue an exciting partnership around the More to Life project that we have developed in the UK.

I was able to meet with key leaders in these states and to speak to gatherings of Church leaders and church planters to explore ways ahead.

As part of my visit I also attended the Baptist World Alliance Annual meetings. Last year I was invited to join the BWA Evangelism and Education Executive and this was my first attendance at one of their meetings. It was fascinating to meet with so many key leaders from across the world.

In April I was invited to South Africa by the Baptist Union of South Africa to speak at two conferences and a crusade. The first conference was a National Youth Conference exploring ways that churches could reach out to the emerging generations of young people. The second conference was a National Evangelism Conference which was again exploring ways of communicating Christ in the 21st Century. I really enjoyed having significant input into both of these conferences and many appreciated the emphasis I was able to place on being relevant to people today who are not accustomed to attending church.

As well as the conferences I also spoke at a ‘Crusade’. It was great to have the opportunity to preach Christ to people and see a response to the gospel.
In many ways this was the beginning of what could be ongoing ministry in South Africa.
As well as ministry overseas during the period before summer I was involved in a number of things in the UK.

I travelled to a number of venues with our theatre company Envizage and our tech team to deliver an event called ‘More to Easter’. This event is used by churches to clearly communicate the message of Easter to people who are not familiar with Jesus or church.

I have also been involved in speaking at a national festival Firm Foundations. This festival is hosted by Boys Brigade and Girls Brigade and attracts over a 1000 adults and young people. I spoke at one of the main celebrations and challenged people to see themselves as Jesus sees them and then to commit or recommit their lives to him. Even in the pouring rain the response was both moving and significant.

Soon after this I spoke at the Salvation Army National conference ‘Generate’. This conference was held at the Swanwick Conference Centre and attended by Salvation Army people from across the country who are keen on evangelism.

I spoke at the plenary sessions at this conference as well as a number of the seminars. It was really exciting to challenge and encourage such a significant group of people to more effective evangelism.

As well as the input into conferences and evangelistic events I have spoken at church weekends where the focus has been on evangelism.

There is something quite special about speaking at a weekend where a church has gone away together and therefore has the time to consider what it really is doing and how its weekly programme helps it to achieve that vision. I was able to speak challengingly and hopefully encouragingly to these churches.

Just before the summer I, along with Mike Simmonds, our Director of Evangelism, and Envizage Theatre Company took part in a week long mission in the North of England in partnership with the Northern Baptist Association. During this week I spoke at a number of evangelistic events that local churches had arranged. My most special memory of these evangelistic events was in Newcastle. Envizage Theatre Company had performed a piece of theatre based on the prodigal son, I then spoke about how God welcomes home those who want to be put right with him. I heard afterwards that two women who had been involved in lifestyles that were not unlike the character in the Envizage sketch rushed to our display table to find out how they could be put right with God.

As well as the evangelistic events for adults we presented an evening for young people at which many responded to the gospel. I also spent much of my time speaking at gatherings of pastors and church leaders encouraging them in ways they can reach people today with the Good News of Jesus.

Following this mission came the summer and with it my wife Lynn and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we went for a very special holiday with our family Gregg, Scott and Amy to California. It was a great time just to relax and be refreshed. During our time in California we were able to visit Saddleback Community Church which was an interesting experience.

Following our holiday the next thing for me was Leading Edge. This is a summer bible week that we deliver in partnership with Baptist Union of Great Britain. Around 1300 people attended. My involvement is overseeing the adult programme and speaking into that. In addition our theatre company, Mike Simmonds our Director of Evangelism, our band Taste, our technical crew as well as numerous people that are involved with and have been involved with Viz-A-Viz serve as volunteers.

God always does amazing things at Leading Edge and this year the most exciting thing for me was when two children shared in the adult celebration how God was changing their lives and how he was always with them. The result of this was that two adults were so challenged by these children that they gave their lives to Christ!

Straight after Leading Edge I travelled, with my wife Lynn, to Argentina to speak at a national conference in a city just south of Buenos Aires called Mar del Plata. Around 600 -700 young adults attended the conference and I spoke at the main plenary sessions. I had a wonderful interpreter called Phoebe and God really used the conference to speak into the lives of many of those who attended. There was a great response in the lives of so many that attended. My greatest memory is one young lady standing at the front of the auditorium holding my hand and the hand of my interpreter and just saying repeatedly ‘Gracias, gracias, gracias’. I am not sure exactly what God did in her life but it was significant.

In addition to these events I have also been very busy writing a whole number of things.

Earlier this year I was able to complete the ALF Year of Outreach programme which is the first major initiative of Arise. (For more details about Arise please click here) It is my prayer that this Year of Outreach material will help churches to pioneer exciting new ministry amongst children across the United Kingdom.

I am now in the middle of writing a resource for Girls Brigade called ‘Seek, Serve, Follow’. This discipleship course is aimed at helping Girls Brigade leaders across the country, and potentially in many different parts of the world, to become closer followers of Jesus thus enabling them to help the girls and the young women they reach out to, to become followers of Jesus as well.

I also have a deadline of just a few weeks to complete the writing of a web site for people who are interested in finding out more about the Christian faith but are not attending church.

We have started the ‘new year’ with our new group of Optimum Volunteers and I have taken part in their training sessions at St Mark’s, Saffron Walden with an overview of the Bible for the first years and an in depth study of Bible characters for the 2nd years.

So that’s what I have been up to, coming up are a whole number of opportunities and I will be posting regular updates on this blog.

I will keep you posted!!

In Christ

Dennis